CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

ASSIGNMENT 1

TOPIC-
PERSPECTIVES OF CHILD LABOUR IN KORAPUT DISTRICT AND
RELATED ISSUES IN EDUCATION AT PRIMARY STAGE

INTRODUCTION

The word ‘Child Labour’ has been differently defined in various studies.
According to the committee on child labour, ‘Child labour’, however, can
broadly be defined as that segment of child population in work, either paid
or on unpaid. Child labour is a global phenomenon. Its magnitude and
dimensions, however, vary widely from country to country. India possesses
the largest child labourforce in the world despite various measures
undertaken by the government and non-governmental agencies to tackle
this issue. According to estimate there are over 60 million child labour is
India constituting nearly twenty five per cent of the working children of the
world.

The social scenario, however, changed radically with the advent of

industrialization and urbanization under the impact of the newly generated
centrifugal and centripetal forces. There was an unbroken stream of the
rural poor migrating to urban centers in search of livelihood. The child had
to work as an individual person either under an employer or independently.
His work environment endangered his physical health and mental growth
and led to his exploitation. The protection and welfare of these children,
therefore, become an issue of paramount social significance.

India has all along followed a pro active policy in the matter of
handling problem of child labour. the framers of the Indian Constitution
incorporated relevant provisions under various articles in Part-III and IV so
as to protect childhood and youth against exploitation and ensure that no
child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory,
mine or any hazardous employment. Besides, a plethora of national laws,
some dating back to the 1930s, offer protection from5 exploitation to India’s
working children. The Bonded Labourer System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 are the most significant
and far reaching of these laws. Despite all these provisions, the incidenc
of child labour continues to remain high in our country, particularly in rural
and tribal areas.

Consequent upon the announcement of the National Child Labour

Policy, 1987, National Child Labour Projects (NCLPs) were set up in
selected areas with the basic aim to reduce the incidence of child labour,
and there by encouraging the elimination of child labour progressively. For
the purpose, a number of welfare programmes, including non-formal
education, have been envisaged under the NCLPs. The effectiveness of
these programmes, has reported to been studied by the researchers as
well as national level independent bodies, e.g. V.V. Giri National Labour
Institute, Noida. These studies have reported conflicting results, and have
mostly raised questions/ doubts on the quality and outcomes of various
programmes under NCLP.

In the backdrop of the above situations, particularly with

reference to the state of our children; conflicting reviews about the
effectiveness of various programmes under NCLP; and the quality of
resources in the area, the present project was undertaken so as to explore
the grassroots realities pertaining to education of the child labour in holistic
perspective.

The specific objectives of the study are as follows:

i. To study the incidence of child labour in the study area.

ii. To study the factors responsible for child labour amongst vulnerable
groups such as girls, and children belonging to SC and ST categories.

iii. To make an indepth study of each factor responsible for child labour
through case study, and to suggest measure to motivate children and their
parents against child labour.

iv. To study the provisions, particularly educational provisions under

National Child Labour Project (NCLP) for the elimination of Child labour
and.
v. To study the issues associated with implementation of NCLP in the study
area.

The results of the study are based on the analysis of different

dimensions of special school programme being implemented in the study
area, e.g. curriculum, management of school, monitoring and supervision;
and stories of selected students who have experienced the programme.

1. Poverty is the main factor which forces a child to be labourer and

deprives him from most of the basic human rights, including right to basic
education.

2. The Special Schools for Child Labour are not provided with adequate
teaching-learning materials and furniture.

3. NCLP, Koraput follows an integrated approach to education and

rehabilitation of child labour in the district. The project evisages
convergences of services, mainly from the departments like Panchyati Raj,
the Department of School and Mass Education, the Department of Health,
and the Department of Sports and Culture etc.

4. The programme of education for child labour under National Child

Labour Project (NCLP), Koraput is managed in a mission mode, i.e. under
a registered society. There is a decentralized structure of management with
District Project Society headed by the district collector at the top and the
village school monitoring committee at the bottom.

5. The mechanism devised for monitoring and supervision of Special

Schools for Child Labour under NCLP, Koraput, is decentralized and well
structured. The officers working at different levels, viz. district,
block,panchayat, and village; and belonging to different departments/
sectors e.g. Education, Panchayati Raj, Health, NGOs, Labour, are
involved in the process of monitoring and supervision of special schools for
the child labour.
 Case Study of Sivakasi fireworks industry

Sivakasi is a small municipal town in Ramanathapuram district. In the

immediate vicinity of the town are two other municipal areas, Thiruthangal
and Sattur. It is famous for three types of industries – fireworks, match
sticks and printing. 90% of India’s fireworks is produced here. There are
nearly 450 fireworks  factories  in Sivakasi employing almost 40,000
workers directly and about 1 lakh indirectly such as paper tube making,
wire cutting, box making in the country side. Due to lack of modern
machines child labour is extensively used. Economic factor is also one of
reasons responsible for child labour. Poverty forces parents to send their
children to work in these industries. Employers take advantage of their
economic condition and force them to work at low wages. According to
official Harban Singh’s report which was conducted in 1976, in spite of
working 12 hours a day younger children aged 4 – 10 earn an average of
Rs. 2 per day. The older ones get maximum of Rs. 6 -7 per day. According
to a magazine published by The Hindu in april 29-may 12, 2000, children
earn around Rs. 20-30 per day. Talking about the working conditions,
according to sources children are taken to industries like animals in buses
filling almost 150-200 children in a bus. And they have to leave their house
as early as 3a.m. in the morning and come back at 9p.m. at night. There
are agents to make sure that they get up and go for work. Some children
stay at home and work. Even they have to work for long hours. According
to a magazine Sumathi age 11 of Ammapatti village rolls 2300 paper pipes
a day for just Rs. 20 though she had been working for a year in a firewoks
unit. Also Chellaiyan age 12 working in a factory in anaikuttam village earns
Rs. 30 though working  12 hours a day. Expecting them to think about their
health, education and personal growth at this situation is impossible.
            
Education is nowhere in their life. They are unable to think
beyond their food. It’s a fact that children are the future of any nation or
community. If this condition of children prevails what can be expected for a
country. According to International Labour Organization (ILO), if child
labour will be banned and all children get proper education, world’s total
income would be raised by nearly 22% over 20 years, which accounts for
more than $4 trillion. Banning child labour will help in boosting the economy
of a country. But the situation here is worse. Most working children in
Sivakasi have not been to school. According to a sample survey conducted
in 16 factories covering 4,181 children, 3,323 (79.48%) are illiterate ; 474
children (11.34%) were educated upto primary school level. Dropouts were
384 (9.2%).
         
Health is very important. And children working in these
factories suffer a lot due to the hazardous working conditions. Also they
don’t have enough time and money to spend on health issues. Filling their
stomach is their prime goal. Hence by the time they grow up they lose their
health and are no longer like other normal people of their age. Asthma and
TB are prevalent among 90 per cent of them who are involved in gun
powder filling and are directly in contact with the chemical ingredients of
crackers and matches.  These workers usually do not wear any protective
clothes and their whole skin can be seen covered with the chemicals such
as sulphur, aluminium powder and gun powder. “Snake Tablet” – one type
of firework, which uses nitric acid, causes skin diseases. Working on this
type of firework is considered to be highly dangerous for workers.

The court noted that the manufacturing process of

matches and fireworks is hazardous to the health of children and may give
rise to fatal accidents.The court noted that the process of manufacturing
matches and fireworks is hazardous and may give rise to accidents. By
relying on Article 39(f) and Article 45 of the Constitution, the court gave
certain directions to improve the quality of life of children employed in the
factories. The Court also felt the need of constituting a committee to
oversee the directions passed. The committee was to consist of (1) Shri
R.K. Jain, a senior advocate; (2) Ms. Indira Jaisingh, another senior
advocate; and (3) Shri K.C. Dua, Advocate.

The committee has done a commendable job. It submitted its report on

11th September, 1991 containing the following recommendations –

(a) State of Tamil Nadu should ensure that children are not employed in fire
work factories.

(b) The children employed in the match factories for packing purposes
should work in separate premises.

(c) Employers should let children work for more than 6 hours a day.

(d) Proper transport facilities should be provided by the employers and

State Governmentto the children.

(e) Facilities for recreation, socialization and education should be provided

either in the factory or close to the factory.

(f) Employers should make arrangements for providing basic diets for the
children and in case they fail to do so, the Government should provide for
basic diet to the children.

(g) Daily wages should be abolished and payment should be made on

monthly basis. Wages should be commensurate to the work done by the
children.

(h) All the workers working in the industry, whether in registered factories or
in unregistered factories, whether in cottage industry or on contract basis,
should be brought under the Insurance Scheme.

(i) Welfare Fund – For Sivakasi area, instead of present committee, a

committee should be headed by a retired High Court Judge or a person of
equal status with two social workers, who should be answerable either to
this Hon’ble Court or to the High Court as may be directed by this Hon’ble
Court. Employers should be directed to deposit Rs.2/- per month per
worker towards welfare fund and the State should be directed to give the
matching contribution. The employers of all the industries, whether it is
registered or unregistered, whether it is cottage industry or on contract
basis, to deposit Rs.2/- per month per worker.

(j) A National Commission for children’s welfare should be set up to

prepare a scheme for child labour abolition in a phased manner. Such a
Commission should be answerable to this Hon’ble Court directly and
should report to this Hon’ble Court at periodical intervals about the
progress.

President of the All India Chamber of Match Industries, Sivakasi in his

affidavit rejected the recommendations of the committee. However, the
court didn’t consider the affidavit of the President.